Improvement in hedge-trimmers



' UNITED y STATES PATENII @EEIOEO LEONARD WOODS, OF OUIIIOY, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN HEDGE-TRIMMERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 11,400, dated July 25, 185:4.

To all 'whom'it may concern:

Be it known that 1, LEONARD WOODS, of Quincy, in the county' of Adams and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Trimming Hedges; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, ot' which- Figure lis an elevation of the cutting side, and Fig. 2 a plan of the machine.

'Ihe use of hedges in place of other modes of fencing has of late years become so extensive, particularly on the large prairie farms of the western States, that the labor of trimming them has become so considerable as to demand the application of machinery to that purpose. The plant generally employed (the Osage-orange) has such a rapid growth as to require cutting several times during the year in order to keep the hedge in proper shape, and to cause it to grow equally close and thick in all parts, and unless some substitute for hand-labor is soonl introduced the cultivation of the hedge will have to be discontinued where economy is the principal consideration.

rlhe object of my improvements is to furnish a machine to trim hedges by animal-labor in place of hand-work, which shall perform its duty accurately and uniformly, as well as rapidly, which shall be adaptable to cut the hedge in all stages of its growth, and which shall trim its lowest brancheswithoutdanger ofthe knives coming in contact with the ground. My design has been to imitate the stroke of the hedge-bill commonly used by hedge-cutters, with which an upward stroke is made, cuttingthe twigs from the under side in a slanting direction, in which manner twigs of considerabie Size can be severed, which it would be wholly impracticable to divide byV a cut square across. For the purpose ot' cutting those branches which lie within a short distance ofthe ground, Iemploy an inclined bar, which raises them upward until they come within the range of action of the cutters.

. ithout this appendage the cutters would have to be hung so low that they would be speedily blunted by comin g in frequent Contact with the ground; or -it' hung high enough to obviate this difficulty many branches would escapetheiractionaltogether. Anotheradvantage gained by the use of the lifter is that a much smaller diameter suffices for the circle in which the cutters move.

In the drawings, a a, represent the frame ot' thecarriage ofthe machine, which is furnished with a pole and double-trees for attachment ot' the horses. y

b b are the wheels, which run loose on thc axle c, with which they can be connected, at the pleasure of the driver, by means of coupling-boxes (l d, worked by the levers e e at the back ofthe drivers seatj'. The coupling-boxes are kept in gear by springs, and having oblique faces, like a ratchet-wheel, they only engage while the machine moves forward, so that in backing the cutting-gear is not affected by the wheels. The axle c runs in boxes in the outside frame-pieces, and has the spur-wheel g fixed on it, by which and suitable intermediate Inultiplying-gearing, L, the cutter-shaft t' is driven at a high speed in a direction coutrary to that ofthe wheels b.

On the extremity of the shaft t' is the cutterwheel la, in the rim of which are fixed the knives Z. The shaft t' is inclined, so that the cutters shall revolve in a plane slightly inclined-to the perpendicular, so as to give the proper wedgeshaped form to the side of the hedge. The

Jcutting-knives may be either plane or have a serrated edge, as represented in the drawings.

mis a bent bar, which is suspended to the carriage at n. Its extremity o rests onthe ground, and is so formed as to run over it without catching, like the tooth vof a rake. From` the point 0 to the rear of the revolving cutters it forms an inclined plane, which, acting on the lower branches, lil'ts them from the ground until, coming within the circle described by the cutters, their ends are cut off and they tall back to their original position. This, it will be seen, allows of a smaller cutter-wheel, with the knives not ruiming nearer than eight or ten inches from the ground, thereby preventing the possibility of their strikingit. By means ofthe lever p the driver can raise the liftingbar from the ground when desirable.

In the rear ofthe side cutters are the revolving cutters q for topping the hedge. rlhey are Yaffixed at any required height by a set-screw on the spindle I', which runsin bearings in the frame a. They are driven by a belt from a pulley on the shaft I. As the upper shoots of the hedge must necessarily be cut at right angles to their length, a guard-piece, s, is proain/fie@ vided,l having deeply-indented teeth for detaining and steadying the twigs till cut oft', after which the remaining portion slips past. The guard-piece is affixed to a slotted upright piece of the frame t, so that it, as Well as the eutters, can be set at any desired height for the vtop ofthe hedge.

I do not claim the invention of knives revolving on a horizontal shaft, as such have been used in machines for topping cotton; but

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The arrangement of the cutters affixed on the face of a wheel on an inclined 'shaft revolvin'g` so as to cut upward as the carriage is Vadvanced parallel to the side of the hedge, in

the manner and for the purpose as described.

LEONARD WOODS.

Witnesses:

EDWARD EVERETT, PHILo A. GOODWIN. 

